A computerized server managing a Virtual Environment (VE) has a network port for communicating with remote computerized appliances, a plurality of virtually-defined rigid objects in the VE, including one or more avatars representing persons in the VE, a physics simulation engine executing from a machine-readable medium, for calculating object states and properties, including motion of virtually-defined rigid objects, and a mechanism for assigning and tracking identification of remote computerized appliances connected via the network port, each remote appliance capable of physics simulation. The server responds to signals from the remote computerized appliances to assign individual ones of the virtually-defined rigid objects to individual ones of the remote computerized appliances for physics simulation, and the server simulates all virtually-defined objects in the VE that are not assigned to at least one of the remote computerized appliances.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A system comprising: a computerized server having a processor executing software (SW) from a non-transitory machine-readable medium, the SW enabling the server to manage a virtual environment (VE) comprising a plurality of virtually defined objects; a network interface at the computerized server communicating with a remote client-side computerized appliance allowing access to and interaction with the VE by a person directly operating the computerized appliance; a first physics simulation engine executing as a part of the SW at the computerized server managing the VE; a second physics simulation engine executing on the client-side computerized appliance, enabled to calculate object states and properties for objects in the VE; and an application executing on the client-side computerized appliance monitoring varying CPU capacity of the client-side computerized appliance and managing a variable volume client-simulation region (CSR) anchored on a specific object having mobility within the VE, the application dynamically expanding or shrinking a boundary defining the volume of the CSR according to a quantity and type of objects to be simulated within the CSR and the varying CPU capacity; wherein the second physics simulation engine calculates object states and properties for all the objects of the VE within the volume of the CSR, and the first physics simulation engine calculates states and properties for all the objects of the VE that are not within the boundary of the CSR as objects are assigned and reassigned to the first or second physics simulation engine as a result of said expanding and shrinking the CSR.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the network is the Internet network.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the server periodically receives simulation data from the remote client-side computerized appliance, updates the VE accordingly, and transmits updated state of the VE periodically to the remote computerized appliance.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the specific object of the VE upon which the CSR is anchored is an avatar representing the person directly operating the remote client side computerized appliance.
5. A method comprising the steps: (a) managing a virtual environment (VE) comprising a plurality of virtually-defined objects by a network-connected computerized server having a processor executing software (SW) from a non-transitory physical medium; (b) connecting the server by a network interface to a remote client-side computerized appliance, allowing access to and interaction with the VE by a person directly operating the client-side computerized appliance; (c) executing a first physics simulation engine as a part of the SW at the computerized server managing the VE; (d) executing a second physics simulation engine on the client-side computerized appliance, the second physics simulation engine enabled to calculate object states and properties for objects in the VE; (e) executing an application on the client-side computerized appliance, monitoring varying CPU capacity of the client-side computerized appliance and managing a variable volume client-simulation region (CSR) anchored on a specific object having mobility within the VE, the application dynamically expanding or shrinking a boundary defining the volume of the CSR according to a quantity and type of objects to be simulated within the CSR and the varying CPU capacity; (f) calculating object states and properties for all the objects of the VE within the volume of the CSR by the second physics simulation engine at the client-side computerized appliance, and calculating object states and properties for all objects of the VE that are outside of the boundary of the CSR by the first physics simulation engine executing at the server; (g) assigning and reassigning the objects for simulation to the first or second physics simulation engine as a result of said expanding and shrinking the CSR.
6. The method claim 5 wherein the network is the Internet network.
7. The method of claim 5 wherein the server periodically receives simulation data from the remote client-side computerized appliance, updates the VE accordingly, and transmits updated state of the VE periodically to the remote computerized appliance.
8. The method of claim 5 wherein the specific object of the VE upon which the CSR is anchored is an avatar representing the person directly operating the remote client side computerized appliance.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
November 20, 2009
September 9, 2014
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